For years now, growth investing has dominated headlines, powered by technology giants and ultra-low interest rates. Markets move in cycles and what has been out of favour often returns with strength. Value investing focuses on companies priced below their intrinsic worth, and this approach is back in favour again.
The Case For Value Investing
Value investing rests on a simple idea. Buy strong companies at prices that do not fully reflect their long-term potential. These companies might be temporarily overlooked, facing near term headwinds, or simply being unfashionable. These situations create pricing gaps that patient investors can exploit.
Over long periods value investing has delivered both downside protection and competitive returns. Value stocks tend to do well during economic recoveries and periods of economic uncertainty where investors place greater emphasis on current profitability and cash flows rather than distant earnings projections that drive many of the growth stocks.
For more depth, see our earlier pieces on Why Value Matters and Value – A Sleeping Giant.
Growth vs Value: A Shifting Relationship
The interplay between growth and value evolves as conditions change. During the last decade growth led markets, driven largely by US tech and AI businesses. Value often leads when the market broadens and investors focus on current profitability, strong balance sheets, and reliable dividends.
This year perfectly shows that the growth vs value relationship is not universal across the globe. Value can outperform in some markets while growth dominates in others, as demonstrated in Chart 1 below.
Chart 1
Top 20 Best Value Funds
Here our team have identified the 20 best-performing value funds across all sectors.
Name | Sector | 6 month performance (%) |
JPM Korea Equity Fund | IA Specialist | 31.37 |
VT Price Value Portfolio | IA Flexible Investment | 27.91 |
Heptagon Kopernik Global All Cap Equity | IA Global | 27.24 |
JGF-Jupiter Financial Innovation | IA Financials and Financial Innovation | 26.72 |
WS Zennor Japan Equity Income | IA Japan | 21.46 |
Nomura Japan Strategic Value | IA Japan | 20.07 |
abrdn UK Value Equity Institutional | IA UK All Companies | 18.81 |
M&G Global Emerging Markets | IA Global Emerging Markets | 17.68 |
Schroder UK Smaller Companies | IA UK Smaller Companies | 17.46 |
M&G Asian | IA Asia Pacific Excluding Japan | 17.32 |
FTGF Royce US Small Cap Opportunity | IA North American Smaller Companies | 16.17 |
NB US Small Cap Intrinsic Value | IA North American Smaller Companies | 16.04 |
Ninety One UK Special Situations | IA UK All Companies | 15.97 |
Redwheel Global Intrinsic Value | IA Global | 15.76 |
Janus Henderson Asian Dividend Income Unit Trust | IA Asia Pacific Excluding Japan | 15.18 |
Invesco Asian (UK) | IA Asia Pacific Excluding Japan | 15.13 |
Schroder Asian Income | IA Asia Pacific Excluding Japan | 15.11 |
Jupiter Asian Income | IA Asia Pacific Excluding Japan | 15.04 |
Nomura Japan Small Cap Equity | IA Japan | 14.82 |
M&G Recovery | IA UK All Companies | 14.82 |
Download our complete list of value funds, split by sector: Value Funds September 2025
Why This Matters for Investors
Value investing remains a powerful source of long-term returns. Periods of underperformance create attractive entry points and patience is often rewarded when the market rotates toward companies with strong cash flows and sensible valuations. It is also clear that, despite negativity around value in some quarters, buying funds with a value bias at the right time can pay off handsomely.
Timing is the hard part. Get in too early and the only consolation may be that a value fund falls less than other areas of the market. A practical approach is to use momentum indicators to identify when market sentiment is shifting towards value or growth funds. However, the right value funds with strong underlying fundamental and a proven track record can outperform across different market environments.